This month The Athens News published a story (which appears to be no longer online as of April 2010) on a student charged with kidnapping and rape who planned to submit evidence about the prior sexual relationship he had with the plaintiff. The accused states in the article that this evidence would “contradict the allegations contained in her statements made to the police and hospital authorities.” The article ends with a series of text messages that are supposed to be similar to what the alleged victim sent the defendant.

Following this article the Labratory for the Study and Prevention of Sexual Assault in the Psychology Department at Ohio University submitted a letter to the editor criticizing the defense attorney’s court filing’s and The Athens News for not reporting facts about sexual violence, particularly post-traumatic stress victims experience after an assault:

Specifically, rape victims often go through a series of responses to post-trauma, including feeling a loss of control, sense of guilt and shame. Furthermore, there are various reasons why a woman might choose to remain in contact or even in a relationship with the perpetrator following the assault. Accordingly, just because the woman sent the defendant text messages following the alleged assault, does not mean a rape did not occur.

An editor’s note followed the letter stating that The Athens News reports on the filings of a criminal case without including commentary on how they feel about those filings. This case as a whole raises issues about sexual assault and journalism ethics that are important for the Athens community to reflect on. It seems likely that the defense attorney is aware of the potential to submit this information into public discourse and affect the outcome of the trial. The Athens News claims it’s merely reporting on the facts, but shouldn’t journalists have a responsibility to examine the validity of the truth claims they’re reporting on? Without doing the extra investigative research, merely reporting what court filings or press releases say turn journalism outlets into a tool for people in power. The most disturbing aspect of the article is the fake text messages at the bottom, meant to sound like what the alleged victim sent to the defendant.